CA: "Ghost Gun" used in Murder Suicide

Gun Watch ^ | 6 August, 2015 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

The "ghost gun" used in the murder/suicide in California was built with off the shelf parts, an 80% receiver, and a fair amount of machining.

The police officer in the video says that crimes committed with guns made this way are rare.  This is the first murder that he has heard of where one was used.  From kron4.com:

WALNUT CREEK (KRON/BCN) — A 21-year-old Lafayette native built the firearms he used to kill a 19-year-old college woman before he turned the gun on himself at a home in Walnut Creek last month, police said Tuesday.

Investigators say Scott Bertics bought gun parts through the mail and then secretly built the two firearms he used in the murder-suicide that claimed the life of Clare Orton.

The reporter noted that a serial number would not have made any difference in this case.

It would have been much easier for the murderer to buy a gun than to make this particular model, even under California's strict gun laws.

A simple shotgun or rifle could have been purchased for far less than the components of the "ghost gun".  California's notorious 10 day "waiting period" would have taken less time than that required to order the parts, have them shipped, do the machining, and put them together.  There is no indication that the murderer was prohibited from purchasing firearms.

Firearms have been produced in homes for nearly 500 years.  Simple homemade guns are common, effective, untraceable, and impossible to keep from criminals.

David Kopel noted that a federal study found that one-fifth of the guns seized by the police in Washington, D.C., were homemade.  Most homemade guns are considerably simpler and easier to make than "ghost guns".

In Brazil, where there are extreme restrictions on the legal ownership and purchase of guns, the criminals favor homemade submachine guns.  Murder rates in Brazil are five times greater than in the U.S.

In India, where restrictions on legal guns are similar to Brazil's, pistols are made in small shops and sold for $10 - $20.   Detailed instructions on how to make them are available on the Internet.  India's murder rates are slightly lower than the United States.

Murders are committed with numerous different weapons/tools/objects.  Hands and feet are commonly used without any other implements.

Murder rates are driven by culture, not weaponry.

©2015  by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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[marktwain]

Guns are 15th Century technology. It is something that disarmists refuse to acknowledge. The gun genie can not be put back in the bottle. People manage to make clandestine guns in totalitarian states and in prison.

[hadaclueonce]

They go after the ammo.

[thackney]

Murder rates are driven by culture, not weaponry.

BTTT

[Gaffer]

There is no indication that the murderer was prohibited from purchasing firearms.

Then why the interest in a self-made/finished gun?

[Lurker]

“Then why the interest in a self-made/finished gun?”

Because that’s next.

L

[marktwain]

The murderer in this case was a bright young man who was talented at building things. Many people do things for the challenge, and to see that they can do it.

Lots of people build their own boats, for example. Many make their own airplanes,

It is much easier to drive the route of a Marathon than it is to run it...

It is difficult to find precise numbers, but it seems that about 30-50 percent of the small numbers of non-Hispanic white murders are domestic. It appears that this murder/suicide was one of those.

Sad, very sad.

[Chainmail]

It's funny but almost no one understands history. In Europe, the kings/nobles retained power by making the possession of arms a crime punishable by death - so the peasantry learned how to use hunting weapons like the bow to defend themselves.

In Asia, the overlords had even tougher restrictions, so the peasantry developed the martial arts to use their hands and their feet as lethal weapons and developed ways of using common agricultural implements as effective weapons.

We had an initial influx of Europeans who were escaping feudal tyranny and the first thing our ancestors did was arm up. This was improved vastly when Eli Whitney developed the mass production of common parts - which reduced costs - simultaneously with Colt's multishot revolver. A personal arms revolution coinciding with expansion West and the further refinement of individual independence.

Do the Leftists really believe that they can successfully overturn our freedom?

[marktwain]

“Do the Leftists really believe that they can successfully overturn our freedom?”

Many of them do, of course. They are superb at lying to themselves as well as others. In addition, there are numerous examples where they have had significant success.

Consider New York City, for example.

The Sullivan Act was created by the head of an organized criminal syndicate to protect criminals. It has only been made stricter over the years.

http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2014/03/corrupt-politicians-organized-crime-and.html

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

See this handmade made pistol at the bottom. It was made INSIDE a California prison back in the 1960s.

Even the ammo cases are handmade.

[Organic Panic]

While consulting for a company in Chandigargh India, we could not buy seamless steel tubing without registering it through the federal government. Apparently it “could” be used to make a gun.

[Oatka]

The "ghost gun" used in the murder/suicide in California was built with off the shelf parts, an 80% receiver, and a fair amount of machining.

On the other hand. (As the article stated later on.)